Project Blog: The Afterthought Chronicles

Although I've scattered elements of it across various threads, I think I'm going to try anf confine all my ponderings on my personal fantasy world "The Afterthought Chronicles" to this thread. Highly inspired by the Pallis project, this is my own spin.

Introduction

"Many long centuries ago, this world was ruled by gods. They made this world, they made us, and they raised us up. Yet many of them also tormented us, subjugated us, crushed us beneath their feet. When the chance came, in the form of a strange mage and a stranger magic, we rose up. The races of the world came together under the banners of the very princes the gods elevated above us. We struck with the new null magic, antithetical to the very foundations of reality, and hurled the gods from their thrones. What did we gain? Freedom perhaps. Yet now the princes rule from the very edifices the gods raised, and they play their games of power unaware of our pain..."

A Brief Sketch of the World:

(rough map to be added)

Spoiler:

An Important Note:

The world, especially in the North and the Central Imperium, is largely divided into the "Upperworld" or the "Lower World"/"The Steam Kingdoms" The upper world is far wealthier, and rules the lower world. They are literally the upper world because the cities are built upon the enormous ruins of what were once the palaces of the Gods. Berenai, for example, is built upon and into a cluster of huge towers that were once the seat of one of the most powerful Godkings. The upperlands rule by power of magic, which they have literally turned into a commodity.

The lowerlands, now known as the Steam kingdoms, have advanced to essentially the classic early steampunk level of technology. rifles, cannons, steam trains, etc. It is illegal for anyone except the most powerful and wealthy members of Lowerworld society to possess any form of magical substance.

Magic Type 1: Mist, Condensate, and Silversteel.

With the demise of the gods, it was noted that in the locations where great numbers of them had fallen, a strange mist was literally rising from the earth. With their structure destroyed, the substance of the Gods: magic, was taking physical form. Humans soon discovered they could harness and direct the energy trapped in the mist: at a cost. The raw magic in the mist seemed to have a tendency to snap into structured form. Those who had once used magic found that the sound of their voice would cause mist to collapse in strange ways, physically and mentally injuring/warping practitioners. Defenses against this phenomenon are described in the spoiler.

Spoiler:

Not long after the fall of the Gods, spells and artifacts were used to begin to manipulate mist on a large scale. Most notably, in the western highlands bordering on the huge concentration of mist in the Mistlands, the Dragoric and Calorens built huge towers that would draw mist in, and made the first batches of condensate. Condensate is essentially distilled, condensed, purified, and stabilized mist. Though it looks like water, it is incredibly valuable, as the magic trapped in it may be utilized by almost anyone.

Huge aqueducts now crisscross the realm, pumping mist and condensate from the mistlands and other mistbasins (basically everywhere that the gods died in high enough concentrations to cause notable mist, one finds a blasted crater of some sort, the aftermath of the battle, filled with mist) to the entire Imperium.

House Dragoric, and to a lesser extent House Caloren have made themselves absurdly wealthy by monopolizing the flow of mist and condensate from the largest reservoir thereof in the world. The only other bodies that can really compete are the Authority, which extracts a large tithe on all transfers, and House Finndrake, which controls a large mistbasin, and has used that to establish a massive mistbank that issues coin and banknotes backed by their mist reserves. Of course, mist, while perhaps the largest single commodity of the upperworld, is not the only factor.

As a final note, some magic is transferred using a rare metal mined in the Bastion highlands known as silversteel. capable of holding up to 100 times as much magic per volume as condensate, it can be used to move certain amounts of magic somewhat more discreetly. The most powerful men in the warrior society of the Bastionlands are known to wear armor and weapons made of the substance, and the ruling councils wear armor made entirely from it.

Magic Type 2: Null Magic

First introduced to the world at the dawn of the 1st HeavenWar, Null Magic is essentially the antimatter to reality. It is found in tiny amounts throughout all of space and time. It can be gathered and focused by certain adepts. Null mages must gather a "vortex" which they hold in check at all times. Drawing upon the energy of this vortex they can cast spells of destruction. More powerful mages are the more creative ones, who can identify the smallest thing needed to dismantle a system.

Again, the backlash from channeling this energy will attack the mind and body. While a mist user will generally go insane and find their body warping, the null mage simply becomes more feeble minded and finds their body beginning to deteriorate. At a certain point, a mage becomes capable of shielding his mind from the ill effects (generally men powerful enough to ever achieve this, achieve it fairly rapidly).

Some rare null mages ascend to become Nullifiers, or Emptinesses, beings capable of essentially directing their destructive energy every which way with flawless precision. They too are able to shape their bodies and minds as they see fit. They are characterized by their strange abilities to attack things most humans would think inviolate. For example, they fly by simply annihilating the effect of gravity upon themselves, and can move with blistering speed by ripping themselves from the standard fabric of time.

Character Bio: Erik Drakon (a.k.a. Rikos the Burned, Lord Shadowfall d'Esshos, Erik d'Vasya)

Born Erik Drakon z'Dragoric, Erik was the bastard and sole child of Eron Dragoric z'd'Dragoric. His father, Eron was the eldest son of the Lord d'Dragoric and favored heir of the clan. At the age of thirty, Eron's father forced him into an arranged marriage with a daughter of house Seyafinn. The night of the marriage, Eron rode into the mistlands with a few trusted comrades from the Mistwatchers. When he returned, nearly a year later, his father was dead and his younger brother had seized the lordship.

Cool! Is this world going to be a more fantasy-type novel setting or like a RPG?

Not sure. It's mainly my personal fantasy world, and there's a vague storyline, but mainly I like fleshing out concepts.